Bullying on social networks

Cyberbullying (online bullying) on social networks can happen to anyone at any time. Social networks should be a place where you can connect with friends and share stuff. It can be really hard if you’re being bullied online but we’re here to help.

what you can do

Often the first thing to do is block the person doing the bullying and report them to the website. This can sometimes help get the bullying stopped. But each social network is different and it’s not always easy to know how to deal with online bullying on different sites.

That’s where this page can help. We’ve got lots of advice on how to block and report people who bully on different apps and sites.

Report sexting or bullying on social media

Social networks don’t allow naked images of people under 18. This includes photos of children who have turned 18 since the pictures were taken. If you see a naked image of someone under 18, or someone has shared a naked picture of you, this is illegal and there are things that you can do.

If you're over 18 and someone’s shared a naked or sexual picture of you without your consent they’re breaking the law. It’s not always possible to get these images taken down but there’s a special Revenge Pornography Helpline for people who are over 18 that can help.

Snaps automatically disappear once the person you sent them to has seen them. But it’s important to remember people can still take screenshots and save them. Then they’ll have a copy of your picture on their phone or tablet and that means Snapchat can’t delete it.

Make a report

If you get an abusive message you can take a screenshot. This way you'll have something to report. Snapchat will try to send a notification to the person who sent you the original message. So it’s important to think about how the other person might react if they know you've taken a screenshot of their message. But remember, you've done nothing wrong in reporting content that upsets you.

Advice will come up and underneath there’s a box that says ‘still need help?’. By selecting this, you’ll be taken to a form where you can explain.

Block someone

If someone’s bullying you on Snapchat, blocking them will stop them from sending abusive messages.

Sometimes you might be added by a username that you don't recognise. This can make it hard to tell if you know the person or not. A good idea might be to set up Snapchat so that you only receive messages from people on your friends list. You can do this by going to your settings then going to ‘Who can send me snaps’. From here, change to ‘my friends’ instead of ‘everyone’. Find out how to block someone on Snapchat.

On Facebook messenger, log in to your account and fill in the form if you want to report images being shared.

Block and report bullying

You can remove tags or block people who are sending you nasty messages. You can also report abusive posts or groups so Facebook can take them down. Reports are anonymous so the person doing the bullying won’t know who reported it. Facebook will tell you in your Support Inbox if they've been able to help.

Instagram is automatically set to public so that anyone can see your images - even if you don’t know them.

It can help to stop bullying if your profile is private. When your profile is private, anyone who wants to follow you and see your photos has to send you a request - which you can ‘approve’ or ‘deny’. This way you can control who sees your photos and can make sure only your friends can talk to you on Instagram.

Make a report

You should also report anyone who is being abusive to you. Instagram doesn’t allow naked pictures of under 18’s on their site. If someone’s shared a naked picture of you or someone you know, you can report it to Instagram. You can use the same form to report images shared on Instagram Messenger.

They won’t tell the person you’re reporting that it was you.

Block someone

If someone is sending you messages or comments that make you feel uncomfortable, angry or upset, a really good first step is blocking the user. The other person won’t know you’ve blocked them. They won’t be able to view your photos, send you comments or find you in search results.

If you block someone, they can still mention your username by using the ‘@’ sign. If you're still getting abusive messages, you can block the person and change your username. This means they can’t mention your username. Check out Instagram's page on blocking people to find out how.

Tweets can be ‘retweeted’ by other people – even if they aren’t following you. But if you change your profile so that you have protected tweets, this won’t happen. This means if you tweet, it can be very difficult to control who sees it. On Twitter, people who you don’t follow can still send you abusive tweets.

Stop bullyingIf you’re being bullied by someone you follow, the first step is to unfollow them. Go to their profile page and click or tap the ‘following’ button – this will turn red to unfollow. You can also tap the settings wheel next to the follow button – from there you can block the person.

Blocking someone stops them from contacting you. You can always unblock them if you want to in the future.

Sometimes if someone involved in bullying is blocked, they might create a new account to bully someone with. This can be really frustrating, but if you report it to Twitter they can help block all the abusive accounts.

People can send you direct messages on Twitter, even if you aren't following each other. If this is happening, you can make it stop by:

If someone’s bullying you on Whatsapp, the best thing to do is block the person and report them. It’s also a good idea to report them to an adult you can trust. They can help put a stop to the bullying. It can also help to have someone to talk things over with.

Report content

When you share images on Whatsapp, the person receiving them will then have copies on their phone, which they can share with people inside and outside of Whatsapp. Even if you delete a message or an image from your chat, others may still have a back-up or screenshot.

If they’re sharing the picture through Whatsapp you can report them by contacting Whatsapp support through the app. The person you're reporting may be banned from the app if it’s related to sexting. But this will not delete the photo from their phone.

Block someone

Blocking someone on messenger apps means they won’t be able to send you nasty messages. Usually the other person won’t know that you’ve blocked them. You'll just appear offline when they look at their contacts. If you're experiencing bullying on Whatsapp or another Instant Messenger app, saving the conversations will be really helpful when you report the bullying. Take a look at Whatsapp's support page to see what happens when you block someone.

When using video chat sites like Skype, Omegle and ooVoo, the person you’re talking to can record or screenshot your conversation without your knowledge. . Video chat sites can’t delete images or videos that have been screenshotted or recorded. This is because they’re saved directly to the person’s phone or tablet. Check each site's reporting and blocking functions before you start using it

Some sites, like Skype, let you report the person if this has happened to you though. You may also be able to block someone so that they cannot talk to you anymore.

People on Tumblr can ask you questions anonymously, which means you don’t know who they really are. Sometimes people decide to send abusive or hurtful messages to other people on Tumblr.

Block someoneIf someone sends you an abusive question or comment on Tumblr, you can block the user.

If you answer an anonymous question, your answer will always be published so that everyone can see it on your blog. It’s always better to delete anonymous questions, especially if they're abusive.

You can block anyone sending abusive messages. You can stop anonymous messages by clicking the ‘ignore’ button (the ‘x’ icon). This will block their account and stop their computer or device from sending messages to your account.

Stop bullyingWhen you create a Tumblr account, anonymous messages should be automatically turned off. But if you're receiving anonymous messages, you can stop this from happening by following these steps:

click or tap on ‘settings’ (the gear icon) at the top of your dashboard

Get help with bullying videos

Bullying videos can be posted online on social media, live-streaming sites and photo sharing apps like Snapchat. If the video is of you it might make you feel worried or helpless. It can feel shocking or upsetting when you see a video like this but there are things you can do.

Some people share videos of bullying to let others know what’s happened or to catch the people doing the bullying. But it’s important you don’t post, share, comment or like videos of bullying because:

it can be very upsetting and embarrassing for people to see videos of themselves being bullied online

some young people and adults find violent content very upsetting, so it’s important you don’t share videos which others will find worrying

when you post a video online you can’t control who shares it or where it will end up. Videos can stay online permanently and impact the people who are in them. It may also stop the person being bullied from moving on.

If you see a video that shows someone you know hurting someone or being bullied themselves, tell an adult you trust, like a parent or teacher. If you're not sure who to tell, you can always speak to a Childline counsellor. You can also talk to a Childline counsellor if you see something that upsets you online, even if you don’t know the people involved.

If you’ve posted a video of someone else being hurt or shared someone else’s video it’s important that you delete it from your account to stop it being spread further. If you’ve bullied someone else and you’re feeling worried about your behaviour, take a look at our bullying advice.